Russian strike on Kharkiv dam disrupts military supply route

Kiev [Ukraine], December 8: A Russian missile strike on a dam in Ukraine's north-eastern Kharkiv region has disrupted an important supply route for Ukrainian forces, the mayor of the town of Pechenihy, Alexander Gusarov, said on Telegram on Sunday.
The road over the Pechenihy dam that leads to the frontline sections at Vovchansk, Velykyi Burluk and Kupyansk, where Ukrainian forces are under severe pressure, has been closed, Gusarov said.
According to other reports on Ukrainian Telegram channels, a bridge over the water reservoir near the village of Staryi Saltiv has also been destroyed. The military tried to allay concerns regarding the supply route, with the 16th Army Corps saying that it was prepared for the complete destruction of the dam on the Siverskiy Donets River.
Alternative routes exist and troops on the frontline have sufficient supplies of weapons and ammunition, it said on Facebook. Efforts are under way to repair the road, the statement said, stressing that attacks on reservoirs, dams or nuclear power plants were prohibited under international law because of their potentially catastrophic consequences.
Many bridges and dams in the region were destroyed in the initial months of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022.
In 2023, Russian forces blew up the Kachovka dam on the lower reaches of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, causing a devastating flood that claimed many lives and caused severe damage.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Sunday for allies to ramp up their support for his country following massive airstrikes by Moscow, in a post on social media.
Ukraine is continuing to work with its partners, "to ensure that, in response to these attacks, our defenses grow stronger," Zelensky wrote on X.
"The priority is clear: more air defense systems and missiles, and more support for our defenders," he added, calling for every agreement to be implemented faster.
Russia again bombarded Ukraine over the weekend with multiple drone and missile strikes.
Source: Qatar Tribune